Pre-Market: No Debt Deal in Sight With Three Days to Default; Boeing Considers Furloughs

Plus: A Canadian bank is eager to acquire Citizens to increase its US retail footprint.

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Stocks were lower this morning as the US government concludes a second full week without a fully functioning government and the debt ceiling approaches.

Despite the federal holiday today, the two houses of Congress will convene to hopefully come to a deal that will raise the debt ceiling before the Oct. 17 deadline. Senate Democrats are eager to roll back the sequester spending cuts, but Republicans say they will not accept any changes to it.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) revised its fourth quarter estimate down half a percentage point to 2% due to the shutdown.

Stocks staged a strong rally on Friday on hopes of a swift solution to the ongoing government shutdown before the country can no longer pay its debts. In the absence of any meaningful progress with just three days left, US stock index futures are down sharply. Dow (INDEXDJX:.DJI) futures were down 0.60% at 15,084. Futures on the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) fell 0.62% to 1,688.40 and Nasdaq (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) futures sank 0.42% to 3,212.00.

Continental European indices declined slightly after the eurozone reported that industrial production fell 2.1% from a year ago in August, though it increased 1% from the month before. Chinese stocks rose despite reporting an unexpected fall in exports. CPI in the country rose to a seven-month high of 3.2% annualized. This data suggests lagging demand abroad, but decent consumer growth at home.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) is reportedly considering furloughing defense, space, and security workers if the government shutdown continues. Amidst stop-work orders and no access to government inspectors, those units, which make up 40% of the company's revenue, will be put on hold.

Toronto Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD), one of Canada's biggest lenders, is interested in acquiring the American retail banking business belonging to Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS). Citizens Bank, which is valued at 8 billion pounds, is mostly owned by the British government. George Osborne, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, will decide whether to sell to TD over the next few weeks. This follows TD's aggressive expansion into the US retail banking market.

Tonight, outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver a speech at the Bank of Mexico Conference in Mexico City.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced today that Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller will share the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics for their analysis of asset price movements. The economists are famous for the efficient market hypothesis and behavioral finance.

"There is no way to predict the price of stocks and bonds over the next few days or weeks. But it is quite possible to foresee the broad course of these prices over longer periods, such as the next three to five years," the committee wrote. "These findings, which might seem both surprising and contradictory, were made and analyzed by this year's Laureates, Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller."

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